After getting my carb. jetted and exhaust on, I am starting to notice a little more upper engine noise around 5- 6000 rpm's. Sometime it quiets some after 20 min. riding. I am curious, everyone says these are noisey motors, but is there any bulletins or known problems with cam chains and guides? Bike runs great and seems to get better each time I ride. I am just curious if and when I should be concerned. Sorry to bring up an old topic, but there are alot of us new KLX owners on here and I just want to make sure I treat my bike right.
Thanks in advance guys!!

 

sounds like, for what ever reason, the new exhaust may cause the noises that were there, to be louder. Did you add a bash plate? that can reflect the noise up. id say after the 20mins you mention, the engine warms up so the noise goes away.

JUST ON A SIDE NOTE!
check the OIL, this happened to me and cost me $1300. for head, cams and timing chain. same noise and just got worse.

 

Oil level is good. No bash plate, yet. I may just have to take it by and let the mechanic ride it and let me know. I was curious if there was a bulletin out on this or if other people have had this problem. Thanks for the response fgk228!

 

mine seems louder than it should be....I'm a auto tech but do not yet have a lot of insight on bikes. I'll be watching this thread...
btw mine only has 320 miles on it.

 

I have about 1075 miles on mine. I've been told due to the design of the motor 4 valves and the chain that they make alittle more noise. Also they say that since it is water cooled the head is thinner which emits more noise. My old 360 yamaha enduro I had in the late 70's never sounded like this. I have heard other Kaw.'s go by and the def. sound different than other dual sport bikes. All I want, is to have someone experienced and qualified to say-" Your motor sounds normal, or what you are hearing is a normal sound due to the overhead cam chain 4 valve design". I 'm hoping this is what the mechanic at the dealership will tell me or anyone out here that knows. I can't find any sound clips of comparisons. Anyone else please throw in your 2 cents worth.
I love this bike and I just want to make sure of it's operating sound so in the case that something WAS wrong, I would know. I don't want to hurt my red headed stepchild!!

 

...just something else you could check

....I know the cam chain tensioner is supposed to be self-adjusting, but there is a method for properly installing it...you could "remove it and re-install" it just to be sure it is not stuck and is installed properly and the noise you hear isn't a loose chain.

 

My enigine got louder at about 2000 miles ago. I have over 4000 miles on it now. The sound is not a ticking or clicking noise, it's more like a winding noise that gets louder as the rpm goes up. My kawi mechanic reinstalled my cam chain tensioner but that noise is still there! He said it was normal but I told him it was never that loud. What can it be? Besides that noise, my bike is running strong!

 

Thats almost exactly the noise I'm talking about. I'd sure like to know if that's the nature of the beast or is there a problem. I though I read on here somewhere that someone had thier chain and guides replaced and that fixed it- reason for my thread title- I would be curious to know. Any mechanics out there, are we blowing smoke or should we be concerned? Bike runs strong, just whines at over 5000 rpms for me, or at least that is when I hear it the most.

 

https://www.kawasakiforums.com/forum...t=timing+chain

The link on top is from when I did the repair to get rid of the clanking noise. I did the repair around 5k miles, bike currently has 6.2k miles and is still running quite and smooth past 5k rpms.

 

But my bike is not making any clanking noise...it's more of a whining noise.